Yesterday, Stone announced Obvious’ first project: incubating an app development company called Lift, created by Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby. Obvious says it will assist Lift with “strategy, design, funding and recruiting”.

What Lift is building remains unclear, but Stone writes:

“Tony Stubblebine and Jon Crosby have created an interesting new application for unlocking human potential through positive reinforcement. We love this software for what it does, and because we’ve tried it and it works.”

Crosby says more will be shared “in the coming months”. If you’re interested in learning more now: Marshall Kirkpatrick has been sleuthing and writes about what he found on ReadWriteWeb.

Stubblebine previously worked at Wesabe, Odeo (where he worked with the Obvious trio) and O’Reilly Media and also founded CrowdVine. Crosby boasts gigs at Path, Engine Yard and Songbird on his résumé.

Lift will be billed as an ‘Obvious Company’, although the Obvious team clearly sees this more as a partnership, wherein Lift gets to follow its own path under the leadership of Stubblebine and Crosby.

Its service is currently in private alpha, but the website lets people sign up to receive more information when it’s available. Oh, and you’ll be able to log in through Twitter and Facebook.